Greek lawmakers voted overwhelmingly early Thursday to approve the austerity bill demanded by bailout creditors, despite significant dissent from members of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’ own left-wing party.
The bill, which imposes sweeping tax hikes and spending cuts, fuelled anger in the governing Syriza party and led to a revolt against Mr. Tsipras, who has insisted the deal forged after a marathon weekend eurozone summit was the best he could do to prevent Greece from catastrophically crashing out of the euro, Europe’s joint currency.
The legislation was approved with 229 votes in favour, 64 against and six abstentions and won the support of three pro-European opposition parties.
Among Syriza’s 38 dissenters were prominent party members, including Energy Minister Panagiotis Lafazanis and former Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis.
The post-midnight vote might not pose an immediate threat to Mr. Tsipras’ government, but it raised more doubts over whether it could implement the new austerity program demanded by rescue lenders.
The vote came after an anti-austerity demonstration by about 12,000 protesters outside Parliament degenerated into violence as the debate was getting underway Wednesday night.
Dissenters argued that Greeks could not face any further cuts after six years of recession that saw poverty and unemployment skyrocket and wiped out a quarter of the country’s economy.
Mr. Tsipras has acknowledged the agreement reached with creditors was far from what he wanted and trampled on his pre-election promises of repealing austerity, but insisted the alternative would have been far worse for the country.
“We had a very specific choice — a deal we largely disagreed with, or a chaotic default,” he told the Parliament ahead of the vote.
Mr. Tsipras had urged Syriza members to back the bill despite having urged voters to reject earlier, milder creditor demands in a July 5 referendum. Greeks voted overwhelmingly to reject those proposals.
Thursday’s vote came after more than two weeks of capital controls, with Greek banks and the stock exchange shut since June 29 and ATM cash withdrawals limited to 60 euros per day.
With its banks dangerously low on liquidity and the State practically out of cash, Greece desperately needs funds. It faces a Monday deadline to repay 4.2 billion euros ($4.6 billion) to the European Central Bank, and is also in arrears on 2 billion euros to the IMF.
The European Commission has proposed giving Greece 7 billion euros in loans from a special fund overseen by all 28 EU nations so it can meet its upcoming debts. The loan would be made pending the start of a full bailout program, but faces resistance from Britain, a non-euro member of the EU.
